Re:Planet Found in Habitable Zone Around Nearest Star
by npongratz on Thursday August 25, 2016 @10:35AM
(#12359300)
I believe GP was referring to the heat death of the universe [0], which might be paraphrased as the death of heat in the universe, rather than lifeforms on one planet dying when the environment becomes too hot for said lifeforms to survive.
Re:Planet Found in Habitable Zone Around Nearest Star
by yourapostasy on Thursday August 25, 2016 @05:38PM
(#12362707)
I should have been clearer; I trying to note the irony of saying "heat death of everything" could be a much shorter timeframe than we usually mean when we say that phrase, if Hansen's forecasts turn out correct.
If further climate outcomes continue to track Hansen's thus-far correct 35-year-old predictions [1], then we've already passed some kind of tipping point and "the heat death of everything" could potentially mean Venusian-style anthropogenic cooking of Earth in some worst-case scenarios, and mass population dislocations and mega-scale environmental disruptions in milder scenarios.
If it turns out that life as we know it is exceedingly rare (and I must admit that the more we find out about exoplanets, the more disconcerted I am while realizing that the hazy possible solution space to the Fermi Paradox is becoming rather uncomfortable as the resolution grows with each passing decade), then that would be truly a tragic outcome.
[1] https://tamino.wordpress.com/2016/08/16/crystal-serenity/